In the early 1970’s, the railroads in America, especially the northeastern part of the country, were in big trouble. The biggest of them all, the Penn Central (Pennsylvania New York Central Transportation Company) was fighting hard to survive…and losing. Things were made even worse a deteriorating roadbed caused a section of the important Chicago-Louisville railway link was closed by the Federal Railroad Administration. That link, south of Indianapolis on old Pennsylvania (Panhandle) rails, and north of it on New York Central (Big Four) and Pennsylvania (Panhandle) trackage, would be closed instantly, but opened over a span of several weeks. At least for freight.

As reported in the Anderson Herald of 3 August 1974, “two major sections of the main Penn Central line through Indiana, close abruptly because of deteriorated roadbed, should be reopened to freight traffic over the weekend.” Well, that’s almost right. The reopening was all up to the FRA, which has closed the track in the first place.

The lines in question included: 1) the Louisville subdivision (original Jeffersonville/Madison & Indianapolis) line connecting Indianapolis south to Louisville; and two) the (replacement) Big Four Lafayette line to Lebanon, then the Panhandle line from Lebanon to Logansport. The FRA determined that even the slowest speed limits, which had been in place on these lines, were too fast for safe travel.

The closure of these tracks also led to the almost complete stoppage of passenger traffic to the city of Indianapolis. Two of the three passenger trains, all run by Amtrak, used the lines in question to service the city. The Flordian, connecting Chicago to Louisville, and the James Whitcomb Riley, connecting Chicago to Cincinnati, were directly affected by the trackage issues. These two trains were being rerouted from the tracks they normally used, and rerouted around Indianapolis. Indianapolis passengers for both of these trains were being bused to the next available station to catch the train.

According to the Herald, 69 miles of rail, from Lebanon to Columbus, were planned, by the Penn Central, to reopen on 3 August, the day of the report. The following day, 4 August, another 21 miles from Columbus to Seymour would be available for traffic. Also to be reopened on 3 August were sections of the Chicago-Logansport line that were closed, but traffic was maintained by using double-tracked sections of the line.

Subject to FRA approval, the Penn Central planned to have the 52 mile Seymour-Louisville section opened to traffic on 9 August 1974. Another 45 miles of track, connecting Lebanon and Logansport, were hoped to be open on 16 August, two weeks from the time they were closed by government order. Two-thirds of the entire line of 315 miles was ripped out of service on 2 August, after the FRA issued such an order on 1 August 1974.

22 Indiana towns and cities found themselves in the economic lurch with the closing of the rails. Those 22 towns depended on industry supplied by the railroads to survive. The weekend repairs of the tracks put many local officials’ minds at ease. One of those towns depended on the railroad was Columbus…a city of 32,000.

Another town that would be decimated by the railroad was Edinburgh. At the time, the tiny town called itself the “Veneer Capital of the World,” with trains running in and out carrying the product that let the community survive. The town had already successfully fought the abandonment of the old Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis line earlier in 1974 by the US Department of Transportation.

In the end, the rails would reopen to all traffic. For a while, anyway. The Line from Indianapolis to Lebanon, at least past Park 100, would be ultimately be abandoned. The line from Indianapolis to Louisville would be short-lined, going on to become the Louisville & Indiana…at least from milepost 4 just north of Hanna Avenue on the Indianapolis southside. The two passenger trains mentioned in the article, the Floridian and the James Whitcomb Riley, would disappear from the Hoosier landscape in the years to follow. The James Whitcomb Riley would become the “Cardinal,” the only train that still runs through the Hoosier Capital, on 30 October 1977. I will cover that in a later blog.

When the interstate system was started in the United States, most of the routes were set down quickly. Those approved by the federal government were added to the 90% federal funding list. Other that were added to the first batch were approved, but not officially funded. Indiana decided to try to get more interstates into the system. Their first request was made in 1968, 12 years after the interstate system became law. These are the roads that the ISHC wanted to add to the state at that time.

First, and the most controversial, was the proposed extension of I-69 from downtown to Castleton. The six-lane, $48.6 million highway would start at the triple level interchange already being built at I-65 and I-70 northeast of downtown, and wind its way through the northeast side to connect to the I-69/I-465 interchange at Castleton. Interchanges were planned, if approved, at: 16th Street; 30th Street; 38th Street; 46th Street; 56th Street; and 71st Street.

This northeast expressway had already been turned down by Federal officials for several reasons, including cost and justification. (Keep in mind that at that time, the northeast suburbs were still mostly small and/or farm fields. There was no way to have known that they would have blown up the way they did. So, arguing about the fact that the northeast side got cheated in this is POINTLESS. As such, it was very unlikely that the highway would ever be approved by the feds. Also, even if they did approve it, the money to build it was not allocated for any of the expansions of the 1956 interstate system.)

The northeast highway, in addition to the wanted state expressway connecting I-465 at Harding Street on the southside to I-65 and 38th on the northside, were state wishes. The Harding Expressway, which would have been SR 37, was to have been half financed by the US Government, as it was not part of the interstate system. This also included an expressway across from the SR 37 route to I-65 along the 30th Street corridor.

Second. The state wanted to add I-63 to the system. This 92.1 mile highway would link I-64 near Elberfield in Warrick County to I-70 somewhere between Terre Haute and Brazil. This would roughly parallel the US 41 corridor. Estimated cost: $131.1 million.

Third. A spur from I-64, costing $39.6 million and running for 20.8 miles, that would bypass Evansville on the east and connect to the Pennyrile Parkway at Henderson, Kentucky.

And last, 10.1 miles of an Interstate 294 extension in Lake County. This would combine with the Tri-State Highway and the improvements then being made on SR 912 (Cline Avenue) to create loop route around a lot of the Chicago suburbs in Indiana. The estimated cost was $42.6 million. This extension would use the Tri-State eastward from Illinois, then turn northward on the new SR 912, and end near the Indiana Toll Road at 129th Street.

Another request from the state was that a new section of SR 100, connecting I-65 on the south to the north leg of I-465 in Boone County, be made a part of I-465. This is the section of the current I-465 that finished the loop and had interchanges at 71st Street and 86th Street.

As mentioned above, the northeast extension would have had a hard time getting approved. Add to that the local protests about such plans, getting it approved would have been very, very, hard. The I-63 plan also died on the vine. However, it would make a proposed comeback as an alternative to the building of a cross-state Interstate 69 southern extension. One may even consider the SR 641 bypass of Terre Haute part of this plan.

The I-64 spur east of Evansville would eventually be built…as I-164. However, that designation is gone, as it has become part of I-69. The SR 912 expressway was completed. But, unfortunately, between design flaws and questionable construction, its days are (some say temporarily) over.

Another thing that was mentioned in the newspaper reports about this project is that the state didn’t actually have the money to do any of these things. The Bureau of Public Roads flat out asked the State Highway Commission which of the already approved highways were going to be deferred to build these new projects. Since no more money was being allocated from the highway fund, the US government asked, rightly so, which do you want more: a highway to Castleton, or the completion of the cross-state routes that have already been approved?

Today, I want to look at a railroad that started in Northern Indiana, but would ultimately stretch as far as Rushville…or maybe Shelbyville…but I’ll get to that later.

The subject railroad started life as two different railroads. First was the Grand Rapids, Wabash & Cincinnati Railroad, created under the laws of Indiana on 29 September 1869. The plan was to build a railroad from Grand Rapids toward Indiana, likely at Goshen. This railroad never built any track.

The second railroad, which the GRW&C would merge with on 30 June 1870, was the Warsaw, Goshen and White Pigeon Railroad. The WG&WP would be authorized by the Indiana General Assembly on 11 February 1870. That railroad would build a 24 mile line in 1870 between Goshen and Warsaw.

The two railroads above would merge to become the Cincinnati, Wabash & Michigan Railway on 30 June 1871. This would allow the already built line between Goshen and Warsaw to be extended to Anderson over the next five years. The line reached North Manchester, 19 miles from Warsaw, in 1871. The next year, 1872, 16 miles of rail were put in service from North Manchester to Wabash. The next year, Marion was reached with the construction of another 19 miles.

The line continued southward with a 10 mile connection to Fairmont in 1875 and the next 23 miles to Anderson in 1876.

Collectively, the line was commonly referred to as the “White Pigeon” road. The road itself would fall on hard times, as was typical of Indiana railroads of the era. Meanwhile, in Michigan, a new railroad was chartered. The Elkhart, Niles and Lake Michigan Railroad was created by the State of Michigan on 19 July 1880. This company would build a railroad from Niles, Michigan, to the Indiana State Line north of Granger, a total of 10 miles, in 1882.

This was the same that the new Cincinnati, Wabash & Michigan Railway would build a line to connect to the EN&LM at the state line to Goshen. This added 20 miles of track to the CW&M.

Then, on 11 August 1882, the Elkhart, Niles & Lake Michigan merged into the Cincinnati, Wabash & Michigan, taking the latter name. This, with the continued construction at the northern end of the railroad, left the CW&M with a track that stretched from Anderson, Indiana, to Benton Harbor, Michigan, by the end of 1882.

And then things got interesting.

In 1883, it was announced that the White Pigeon Road would be building a subsidiary road to connect Anderson to Rushville. This line would carry train traffic through Knightstown and Carthage to Rushville. At this point, other than the Panhandle route going east to west, Knightstown had no other rail connections. Also, at Rushville, through other connections, the CW&M could actually carry traffic to Cincinnati.

But the owners of the CW&M saw another prospect. As was typical at the time, railroads weren’t built, usually, in such direct lines. The old phrase “money talks” was very much alive and well in the late 19th Century. The owners of the CW&M saw a chance to make even more money, contributing to the construction of a railroad, if they pitted two towns against one another. They chose Shelbyville.

The Hancock Democrat of 20 August 1883 dedicated over two full columns to the prospect. The plan was to incorporate a railroad to be called the Anderson, Greenfield and Shelbyville Railroad. It would be owned by the CW&M. There were even talks that Rushville was taken completely out of the running for the extension.

And the residents of Rush County were less than enthused.

The Hancock Democrat was reporting both sides of the issue. It was, however, beneficial to the Democrat, and its readers, should the railroad come through Greenfield.

The line wasn’t completed until 1891…and it ended at Rushville. Here, the line connected to the Vernon, Greensburg & Rushville, a line that had been leased by the Big Four in October 1891. At the same time, the Cincinnati, Wabash & Michigan would also be purchased by the Big Four.

But even that was not as tidy a proposition as one would assume. This was after the announcement in July 1890 that the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern (New York Central) had acquired the complete Cincinnati, Wabash & Michigan. This was strange in that the LS&MS owned one-quarter of the CW&M stock. Another one quarter was owned by the Big Four. Most of the last half of the stock was owned by a railroad President named D. J. Mackey. He was the President of the Big Four. Mackey had purchased the stock from J. H. Wade, President of the CW&M, in 1889.

While the CW&M belonged to the Big Four, and was planned to be completely merged at the close of the fiscal year on 30 June 1892, it wasn’t until 16 June 1915 that the line actually became officially part of the Big Four. It had been called the Michigan Division of the latter railway, but on paper, it was still separate.

There are still vestiges of the old CW&M that exist to this day. The original line from Goshen to Anderson is still shown on maps. It is owned by the Norfolk Southern. Past Anderson, however, while the track still exists in some places, it has long been out of service. Knightstown used to be home to the Carthage, Knightstown & Shirley Railroad, connecting those three towns. It was used as an excursion railroad for many years, until it was closed by its owner, Tom Allison, in 2013.

1932. The Indiana State Highway Commission was getting its complete state road system, a little at a time since 1919, into a cohesive whole. Part of that was moving county roads to state control. One such road was SR 331.

The adding of SR 331 into the state highway system was announced on 14 January 1932. The plan was for the state to take over Dogwood Road south from the Dragoon Trail southeast of Mishawaka. It would follow Dogwood, or Bourbon, Road south to what is now SR 25 northeast of Rochester. This would place the road traveling east of Bremen, then through Bourbon and Tippecanoe.

The addition of this segment of road into the state highway system was started by the Bourbon Chamber of Commerce in 1930. The Chamber had asked that the Bourbon Road be included as a state highway. While becoming a state highway, it didn’t mean much for the road in the beginning. It would mean, eventually, that the state would start paving it. When was anyone’s guess. SR 331 was moved, later, to include Bremen as part of its travels. This would move the highway from the Dogwood (Bourbon) Road that it still follows north from SR 25 to the west to follow the Bremen Highway north to Mishawaka.

Another road added at the time was the Plymouth-Logansport Road. This road would carry traffic between those cities via Culver. This section of road was actually a continuation of a road across northern Indiana that connected Goshen, in Elkhart County, to Plymouth in Marshall County. That trail is to this day, in places, called the Plymouth-Goshen Trail. Following this route, travelers made their way from Goshen, through Bremen, to Plymouth. The continuation, as mentioned before, connected Culver and Logansport.

The Bremen Chamber of Commerce had lobbied for the inclusion of the entire trail complex, from Goshen to Logansport. This would have created two state roads to Bremen, added to the already extent SR/US 6 that traveled through the town.

In the end, the Plymouth-Goshen Trail was not included in the state highway system.

With the addition of these two roads, and almost 1,000 miles of other roads in the state, the Indiana State Highway Commission had control of around 10,000 miles of road facilities in the state. Ultimately, that total would never grow above 12,000.

Today, I want to share part two of the original plans for the interstates connecting downtown. It is important to keep in mind that Interstate 70 east from downtown was still being designed. Today, we look at the downtown innerloop from Washington Street south to the south split, and Interstate 70 from the south split to the proposed interchange at Ray Street near the Indianapolis Union Belt Railway and Harding Street.

The downtown innerloop plan, which continues today from last Friday’s post, actually changed very little. Pine Street was planned to be continuous from Fletcher Avenue north to Washington Street, where a loop ramp allowed northbound 65/eastbound 70 traffic to exit at what was, at the time, US 40. There were very few places where these two major highways – Interstate 70 and U.S. 40 – meet with no way to interchange traffic. With the changes in the plans of this highway downtown, the center of Indianapolis was one of those places.

Continuation south of Fletcher Avenue shows plans for an onramp to northbound 65/eastbound 70 from Virginia and an offramp the opposite directions to the same. Both of these, in one form or another, made it to the final construction.

An off-ramp from northbound 65/eastbound 70 also connected to Virginia Avenue. Morris and Prospect Streets would cross over the highway in a straight line, and the onramp to southbound 65 from Morris Street is in place on these pictures to the left.

The mass collection of ramps along I-70 west was actually designed from the beginning, although the final product is way different. A full interchange at Capitol Avenue, an east-on/west-off setup at Meridian Street and a west-on/east-off at East Street were the plans of the day in 1960. There is also a lot of moving around for Ray Street, just north of the interstate. The plans, apparently, included making sure that Ray Street was usable from Madison Avenue to almost White River, as shown in the next two photos.

What would ultimately become the off-ramp from southbound 65/westbound 70 to East Street is also shown on this map. But according to the original plans released by the Indiana State Highway Commission, that ramp actually was supposed to connect Pine Street to Buchanan Street north of the west leg of I-70. The current entrance to the Eli Lilly facility at East and Buchanan Streets would have been an onramp to Interstate 70.

These two photos are from the Indianapolis News of 13 January 1960.

What was planned, and what happened, really shows in this Indianapolis News photo from 15 January 1960 sown below. West Street does have an exit eastbound. And it has an onramp westbound. But Missouri Street isn’t involved in the entire interchange, making it a one way proposition. The same setup of ramps also appear at Kentucky Avenue. This means that the next place one could get off of Interstate 70 westbound, or on I-70 eastbound, as originally proposed, would have been at Ray Street. Yes…Ray Street. That would be the next paragraph.

What about a ramp at Ray Street east of the Belt Railroad, instead of west of the Belt at Harding Street? Well, that was the plan. But there were some other things at play when the plan was changed from the one shown in the Indianapolis News of 16 January 1960. (And shown below!) Part of what changed the plan here was the potential of the SR 37 highway running through the west side of Indianapolis along the Harding Street corridor. That was planned after these rough drafts were created for Interstate 70.

Today, I will be basically sharing three pictures…two of which are halves of one another. These pictures come from the Indianapolis News of 11 and 12 January 1960. They show the original ideas for the downtown connection between I-65 and I-70. The plans include those two highways – no more. As of January 1960, the only parts that had been designed to that point was I-65 west from the north split and the joint section from Washington Street north to the north split.

The original design had gone through many changes between 1960 and completion of construction in 1976. The original interchange between I-65 and I-70 would have been west of College Avenue, not east as it is now. On and off ramps at Massachusetts, Michigan, New York and Washington would have made for some interesting traffic patterns. The ramp patterns on the north I-65 leg would have been interesting, as well.

The design of Interstate 65, and its location, would start a cascade of legal and political moves that would delay completion of the highway until after the Federal money was supposed to stop being provided.

The picture of I-65’s north leg will be rotated to the right, with north to the top, due to the sheer size of the photo in the newspaper. This will allow for greater detail. I left the caption intact.

One of the oldest state roads in Indiana is the old Michigan Road. I have covered that road several times in the annuls of Indiana Transportation History blogging. Today, I want to go back to the South Bend Tribune of 13 May 1928, and the pending improvements on the old road.

“Improvement by the Indiana highway department of what is known as the Michigan road south from Rochester will give South Bend and this part of the state a second good road to Indianapolis and more satisfactory connection with Logansport. The state highway commission is devoting much attention to this highway and finds that years of encroachment by farmers and others have decreased the original 100 foot width of the Michigan road so greatly that in some places in rural sections it is little better than a lane.”

The news article makes the case that the road should be returned to its original 100 foot right of way “so that the old glory of this celebrated highway may be restored and it may again take its place among the highways of history.” However, they recognize that some farmers, having had part of the ROW as part of their farms for years, might not make what the Tribune sees as the right choice and give it back freely and voluntarily.

“Perhaps no other road in Indiana, not excluding the old National road, has a more interesting history than the old Michigan road with extends from Michigan City, eastward to South Bend and then south through Plymouth, Rochester, Logansport, Indianapolis and Greensburg to Madison on the Ohio river. Due to the development of many local county and township roads in later years the need of a main through route like the old Michigan road was not so insistent as it is to-day and as a result was a tendency in many places to encroach upon the 100 foot right-of-way of this old historical road.”

The article continues with the “encroachment” theme throughout…making it quite clear that it shouldn’t have been allowed in the first place.

Then the article covers more history of the road. “During the administration of Gov. James B. Ray from 1825 to 1827 and due primarily to Gov. Ray’s influence, the United States congress authorized a treaty between the United States and the Potowatomie Indians for the purpose of obtaining land from the Indians to make a road through northern Indiana. The treaty was concluded on Oct. 6, 1827, between commissioners appointed by the United States and the chiefs and warriors of the Potowatomie Indians. This treaty provided that a large territory in southern Michigan and northern Indiana be ceded to the United States government. The real purpose of the treaty was to open new territory for settlement, although this reason, of course, was not implied in the treaty.”

“Indiana was authorized to lay out a road from Lake Michigan south. The right-of-way was to be 100 feet wide. The Indians were to receive $2,000 in silver for a term of 22 years. The government was to provide a blacksmith for the Indians and was to furnish $2,000 for education. The government also was to build a grain mill on the Tippecanoe river and keep the mill in operation. This mill was erected near what is now Rochester. The government also was to give the Indians 160 bushels of salt each year. The president of the United States, John Q. Adams, ratified the treaty in 1827 and congress passed legislation about 1827 authorizing Indiana to locate and make a road.”

The act in the Indiana General Assembly creating the Michigan Road was made into law on 24 January 1828. Survey work began in the autumn of 1828. “A course from Lake Michigan to the Wabash river, where the town of Logansport now is, was surveyed but on account of the marshes of the Kankakee river this route had to be abandoned. Finally, however, a survey for a road east of the marches 102 miles lone was made and the road was finally so located.”

The original survey of the road coming from Michigan City was not accepted by the commissioners creating the Michigan Road. So surveyors created another one…almost identical to the first. “The direction of the Michigan road as laid out began at Trail creek on Lake Michigan, thence eastward to the southern bend of the St. Joseph river, now the city of South Bend, then turned south, running to the Wabash river, crossing it at what is now Logansport, and thence south to Indianapolis. The road was later continued southeast through Greensburg and thence to Madison on the Ohio river.”

Acts for the building of the Michigan Road were passed on 29 January 1830 and 4 February 1831. The second of these covered the road “lying between Logansport and the southern bend of the St. Joseph river.” That second act was also never signed by the Governor. However, since it was also never vetoed, it became law according to the Indiana Constitution in force at the time.

Financial difficulties and other problems, however, led to the Michigan Road not being opened as desired. This required another act of legislation dated 2 February 1832 to provide for selling of tracts of land along the Michigan Road. “The road was authorized to be opened 100 feet in width. The opening was to be made clear of all timber as was the custom in those days.”

Thus is a brief history of the background of the Michigan Road. There are a lot of great sources of information for this great highway available online.

A part of the state that I have not focused on much is the area around Evansville. So today, after doing street guides for Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, I want to show the street guide for Evansville for the same year – 1868.

The last entry, 1878: A Fort Wayne Street Guide, led me to looking up the subject of this entry. Indianapolis had gone through a major change of street names from 1894 to 1897. Fort Wayne, it appears, did the same. The following was reported in the Fort Wayne Daily News of 9 December 1897.

“The Names of Many of Our Thoroughfares to be Changed Next Month.”

“Last night the committee on streets and rules and regulations, a special committee appointed to change the names of all streets and avenues where the same name appears twice in the city streets, met and concluded it labors. Several new streets were names and some streets and avenues which were continuous or extensions of other streets, all experience changes of names.”

• Fox Street, second east of Broadway, and Shawnee Avenue, extensions of the same street, changed to Fox Avenue.
• Taber Street became Taber Avenue.
• Pritchard Street changed to Lavina Avenue.
• Nelson and Metz Streets changed to Nelson Street.
• Trentman and Kinnaird Streets to Kinnaird Street.
• Johns Avenue to Nutman Avenue.
• Griffith Street, a continuation of Fairfield Avenue, to Fairfield Avenue.
• Oneida Street, in South Wayne, to Wayne Avenue.
• Locust Street to Chauncey Street.
• Duryea Street to Poplar Street.
• Dawson, Colerick and Charles Streets all to Masterson Street.
• Allen Street and Park Place to Woodland Avenue.
• Koch Street to Dawson Street.
• Crescent Avenue (Bond’s Addition) to Meyer Avenue.
• Hoffman Street to Hoffman Avenue.
• Wells Street to Wells Avenue.
• Ninth Street to McKee Street.
• Tenth Street to Colerick Street.
• North Street to Fairmont Avenue.
• Ann Street to Ferguson Street.
• Park Avenue (Nebraska) to Thieme Street.
• Grace Street (Esmond’s Addition) to Esmond Street.
• Grant Street to Findlay Street.
• Shoals Street to Simons Street.
• Lake Street (Aarcher’s Addition) to Maria Street.

This was after a first round of name changes that were recommended in April 1897. That list was much shorter. But it also looks like some of them never occurred. Especially the original recommendation of Ninth and Tenth Streets.

• Hamilton Street, from Calhoun to Lafayette, Wallace Street.
• Thomasetta Street, from Gay to Thomas, Hurd Street.
• Julia Street from Thomas to Holton Avenue, Hurd Street.
• Alliger from Pioneer Avenue to New Haven Road, Grant Avenue.
• Winch from Pioneer to New Haven Road, Wabash Avenue.
• Maumee Road to Maumee Avenue.
• Penn from Alliger to Lumbard, Winch.
• Hugh from Walton to Alliger, Alliger.
• Eliza from Walton to Alliger, Penn.
• Bowser Street, from Wells to Barthold’s Addition, Second Street.

A resolution was put forth at the time to change Ninth Street to Capital Street and Tenth Street to Manhattan Street. That resolution went nowhere, as the names of those two streets were changed, in January 1898, to McKee and Colerick Streets.

In fairness to the rest of the state, I have decided that I will share the street guides from other places around Indiana from the same year as last week’s Indianapolis street guide. Today, it’s Fort Wayne. Now, it doesn’t have the same information available as the Indianapolis City Directory. There is no addressing in this list. But it does list every street in the city of Fort Wayne…at that time. I find such lists interesting…and helpful when you are doing genealogy.

For those that are interested, you can see a list of available Fort Wayne City Directories at this link: https://www.acgsi.org/genweb/fort-wayne/city-directories.html

The south side of the city of Indianapolis has always suffered from a sort of neglect when it came to the infrastructure of the city. It started with the very design of the town of Indianapolis. The main drag of the tow was south of the circle…therefore the south side was smaller than the north. The south side of the mile square had been swampy and almost unusable land. Railroad depots used the south side because it was cheaper to buy than “dryer” land north of Washington Street.

When it came to trains, that would also be a big damper on the expansion of the south side. With the large number of trains coming in and out of Union Station, transport to the south side was hindered by delays. Two projects, both of which were not the greatest, allowed passengers and street cars to pass the roadblock that was Union Station: the Illinois tunnel and the Virginia Viaduct. Street cars would use both of these to get to the south side in a timely manner.

Let’s start with the South East Street line. The mule car line ran from Virginia Avenue to McCarty Street along East Street when it was opened in 1892. Two years later, when it was electrified, it was extended to Morris Street. Additions in 1905 and 1906 took the route to Terrace and Lincoln, in that order. The last day of the tracked trolleys was 22 August 1934.

That was not to be confused with what would become the Garfield Park line. Started in 1879, the line would follow South Street from Illinois to Delaware, then turn south to McCarty. That was extended in 1888 along Delaware Street and Madison Avenue to Nebraska (Terrace). As the last line to be electrified, in 1896, it was extended from Madison and Terrace to Madison and Lincoln, then east to East Street, south to Raymond Street, then east to Singleton, where there was a loop to turn the streetcar towards downtown again. 13 February 1937 would see the end of the use of tracks for the Garfield Park line.

The Shelby Street line started operations in 1888, when it branched from the Prospect line at Fountain Square to the car barns on Shelby Street. When electrified in 1892, it was extended to Beecher Street. 1900 saw the line extended to Southern Avenue. Two years after that, the Southern Avenue end of the line was connected to the Garfield Park loop. The line grew to it greatest extent in 1920 when the Indianapolis Street Railway company purchased from Interstate Public Service Company the tracks that were laid in Shelby Street from Southern Avenue to the Perry Avenue loop. The Perry Avenue loop was known as Stop 1 on the Greenwood interurban line…the first location where the famous “Stop” roads south of Indianapolis get their names.

In 1915, a line was branched from the Shelby Street line to run along Minnesota Street east to Harlan. The Minnesota line was removed from tracks on 20 April 1938. That was followed almost a decade later, on 2 March 1946, by the removing of track running on the Shelby Street line.

Next week, we are going southwest when it comes to street car lines.

When Indianapolis was being expanded, neighborhoods were just added to the city in a very piecemeal fashion. And as such, street names were erratic. Also, addressing was a lot different than it is today. This entry of Indiana Transportation History shows the Indianapolis City Directory street guide from 1878. The reason I chose this one is that it was the first to not only show the street names and locations, but the cross streets and house numbering. This was before the major street name changes and the readdressing of Indianapolis in the late 19th Century.

One of the things I have fun with is trying to place the street names. Most of the streets still have the same name. Some don’t. Some have just been completely removed for one reason or another. Agnes Street listed on the first page has been completely removed for the building of IUPUI. Japan Street started at the corner of Morris and East, and continued south to Raymond. Later, the name Japan was changed to East with the 1894 street name changes.

How many can you find? And how many changed your way of looking at the early history of Indianapolis?

Today is going to be a graphics intensive entry…showing pages from the Indianapolis City Directories.

In the very back of the book, the City Directory lists the railroads in Indianapolis…and the distances to different cities across the state and across the country. Here is the two page list.

The Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Railway. This ad, as mentioned, is for the “late Bellefontaine Railway.” Connecting to the east coast via what would become the New York Central system, as the railroad itself would become part.

The Baltimore & Ohio. At this point, just a railroad company that, with connections, can get you to the east coast. But what connections? Well, in 1868, they told passengers that they could reach the B&O if they left Indianapolis on the Columbus & Central Indiana. Strangely, when the B&O came into Indianapolis, it used a line that paralleled the Columbus & Central Indiana. The C&CI would become part of the Panhandle/Pennsylvania. The Junction would become part of the B&O.

The Cincinnati, Connersville and Indianapolis Junction Railroad. As mentioned above, when the Baltimore & Ohio came to Indianapolis, it was through the Junction. And this is the Junction in 1868. The CC&IJ claimed no connections in their ad…just a trip to Cincinnati. Twice a day. When it opens, which was scheduled for August 1868.

Another railroad that was working the crowd when it came to connections. Use the Jeffersonville, Madison & Indianapolis to get to Louisville, Nashville, Memphis and Mobile. This ad, was, however, for the connections that could be made in Louisville, on the Louisville & Nashville and the Louisville & Memphis. 24 hours to Memphis, and 48 to New Orleans!

New York City. And how to get there. The New York Central, in 1868, was not a railroad that operated in Central Indiana. However, you COULD get to the NYC via the Bee Line. And catch the only trains to New York City that didn’t have to be ferried into the city.

Above I mentioned the Columbus & Indiana Central Railroad. Here the ad for that railroad, although it is called the Columbus & Indianapolis Railway. The line would align itself with the Panhandle, and thus, the Pennsylvania Railroad.

The Indianapolis & Chicago Airline. Actually, it was the Indianapolis, Peru & Chicago. It would later become the Lake Erie & Western…and even later, the Nickel Plate line into Indianapolis.

The Indianapolis & Saint Louis Short Line. Today, it is the major railroad west out of Indianapolis, having been part of the Big Four, New York Central and Conrail. It was a joint venture, originally, involving the Pennsylvania and the New York Central. But when control of the Vandalia finally came into the PRRs hands, they got out of this venture. This line still exists…the Vandalia is long gone.

13 January 1944. A meeting for the next day at 3 PM was reported in the South Bend Tribune. That meeting, including Mishawaka Mayor Joe Brady, the city board of public works, the Chamber of Commerce, and “other Mishawakans,” were to meet with the Laporte District Engineer of the Indiana State Highway Commission, Frank E. Bernoske, concerning a bypass of the city of Mishawaka to the south…and where it should be placed. They were pushing the bypass to be a number one post-war project. And their preference was to push the bypass to Ireland Road, as opposed to New Road that had been recommended by others.

The original bypass idea gained footing in the spring of 1939, when, as reported in the South Bend Tribune of 19 May 1939, “construction of a primary system of state roads by which heavy traffic would be shunted around South Bend and Mishawaka probably will begin in 1941 and be completed about two years later, T. A. Dicus and C. W. Siniff, two of Indiana’s three state highway commissioners, said Thursday afternoon in a meeting of representatives of the two cities and of St. Joseph county after a luncheon in the Oliver hotel.” (Source: South Bend Tribune, 19 May 1939, pp 15)

The bypass made progress in 1943 when there was concern about the large number of trucks pounding their way through South Bend and Mishawaka. The South Bend Tribune of 23 November 1943 discussed plans of such bypass. The entire bypass would be a system of roads that created a rectangle around South Bend and Mishawaka. The plan was: to use Ash Road on the east from New Road to Cleveland Road; on the north Cleveland Road from Ash Road to Mayflower Road (an extension thereof, since it didn’t run to Cleveland at that time); on the west the extended Mayflower Road, Sumption Road, and Oak Road south from Cleveland Road to New Road; and on the south, New Road from Oak Road to Ash Road.

“The huge rectangle surrounding the South Bend-Mishawaka area by the by-passes would enable all heavy traffic to be rerouted around the two cities as all main arteries from every direction would intersect with its perimeter, Mayor Pavy pointed out.” (Source South Bend Tribune, 23 November 1943, pp 9) “Diversion of truck traffic from the cities is essential to reduce traffic congestion within the communities, eliminate undue noise and prevent deterioration of buildings shaken by the heavy vehicles, the mayor added.”

As mentioned in the first paragraph, the city of Mishawaka had other plans. Instead of using the New Road corridor for the truck bypass, the Mishawakans recommended using Ireland Road. “Those favoring the Ireland road will argues that this project was approved locally two years ago and that the right-of-way for construction of approximately two miles of new highway from the eastern end of Ireland road at Union street east to a point on Dragoon trail had been obtained.” (Source: South Bend Tribune, 13 January 1944, pp 27)

“The Ireland road was favored two years ago by the road committees of the local Chamber of Commerce and the South Bend Association of Commerce. Some engineering work was done at that time, which it was reported showed that the Ireland road bypass could be completed without difficulty or excessive cost.”

As it turned out, the plan for the “number one post-war project” that the South Bend-Mishawaka bypass was supposed to be, the state highway commission had other ideas. A story in the South Bend Tribune on 21 September 1947 reported that “a truck by-pass through Mishawaka, a local issue of some five years, and originally designed as the city’s No. 1 postwar project, moved a step closer to a solution Saturday with the assurance from Gov. Ralph H. Gates and H. D. Hartman, a member of the state highway commission.” Part of the request was that US 33 through Mishawaka and South Bend be rerouted, cutting down truck traffic on that major thoroughfare.

I only scanned the newspapers between 1937 and 1950 for reports concerning this article. As of 17 June 1950, the South Bend Tribune reported no progress whatsoever on a truck bypass of South Bend and Mishawaka. The bypass west of South Bend, the St. Joseph Valley Parkway, started construction in the mid-1950’s. East of US 31 south of South Bend, near the Ireland Road intersection, the bypass would be in a holding pattern until the 1990s, at least according to USGS topo maps. It turned out that the road would become part of US 20, and bypass not only South Bend and Mishawaka, but Elkhart, as well. On the south and west sides of South Bend, the Parkway became part of US 31.

In 1873, the Alabama line was originally a branch from the Illinois Street line. It would leave Illinois Street at Seventh (16th) Street, running east Alabama Street, then north to Exposition Avenue (19th Street) to the main entrance of the Indiana State Fairgrounds. The Fairgrounds, at that time, were located at what is now 19th and Alabama. In 1888, the line was moved, starting as a branch from the Massachusetts line, going north on Alabama to Exposition Avenue, where it turned east to New Jersey, turning south to go to the barn. The line would be electrified in 1891. The last railed trolley car would run on 22 May 1937, and the line would be abandoned completely 17 February 1941.

The Central line would be put in place starting in 1888, when the line was completed to carry trolley cars from Christian Avenue (11th Street) to a turntable at 10th (20th) Street. It was rerouted the following year, staying on Alabama Street to Home Avenue (13th Street), then crossing over to Central. Electricity was added to the line in 1892, but it ceased running up Central at that time…at least most of the way. The line would be routed along College Avenue to 16th (24th) Street, turn west to Central, then north to 26th (34th) Street. Another round of electrification would see the line rerouted again, this time crossing over from College at 10th (20th) Street, then north to end at 16th (24th) Street. The last car to run on the rails on this line would do so on 20 March 1937.

With operation starting in 1889, the Brightwood line would take riders to the Big Four Repair Shops in Brightwood. The line would technically start at Home Avenue (13th Street) and Columbia Avenue, where Hill Avenue (now Roosevelt Avenue) began. It would follow what is now Roosevelt Avenue to Gale Street, north to Brickman (25th) Street, east to Brightwood Avenue (Sherman Drive), then north to what is now 26th Street. Five years later, in 1894, the line was electrified. The line was extended to 30th Street in 1911. On 19 September 1934, the last tracked trolley would run on the line.

A late comer to the Indianapolis Street Car system was the Brookside Line. Now, this line actually got its start in 1904, around the same time that the Union Traction Company built its line to Anderson and points beyond. The Brookside line was built to allow the UTC to complete its trip into Indianapolis. The line ran out Brookside Avenue (parallel to Massachusetts)from 10th Street to a “Y” at 18th Street. In 1920, the city street car company bought the trackage from the Union Traction Company to get to a turntable at Olney Street. The tracks for this line would be used by trolleys until 6 June 1934.

1854. The Indianapolis & Peru Railway is completed to Indianapolis. Looking at a map today, it is easy to tell that the old I&P, which would eventually become the Nickel Plate, shared the same right-of-way with the Bee Line and what would become, in time, the Monon. However, that wasn’t always the case.

The original route of the I&P ran as shown in this 1870 map, at the point where the Bee Line turned from north-south to northeast-southwest, the Peru turned south-southeast. Here, the I&P ran through the middle of a city street, at that point called Peru Avenue. Then the railroad would turn due south of North Street, again running down the middle of a city street. This time, it was called Railroad Street. But the original Bee Line wasn’t where it was in this map, either. The original Bee Line continued on Massachusetts Avenue to Railroad Street. Originally, the two railroads joined right of ways at North Street. By 1870, as shown in this map, the right of ways of the Peru and the Bee Lines would join just north of Market Street. The current property lines along the old railroad right of way still show this.

By 1880, the railroad had been removed from Railroad Street, and the right of way was moved for the Indianapolis & Peru to join with that of the Bee Line. The section that ran in Peru Avenue ended just shy of the intersection of Peru Avenue and Davidson Street.

The line of the current right-of-way of the three railroads on the east side of downtown is the survey line that is the line of Shelby Street to the south, and, above 38th Street, what is now the Monon Trail below Broad Ripple.

The street name of Railroad Street would be changed in 1893, prior to the mass street name change in Indianapolis, to Fulton Street. Peru Street, which ran north from what is now 10th Street, was changed to Cornell Avenue. Peru Avenue, the angled section that ran from North and Railroad Streets to Massachusetts Avenue, was changed to Davidson Street later. Most of the area of the original rights of way of the Peru and Bee Lines are still intact. But the location of Peru Street, and the north end of Peru Avenue, are currently under the north split of Interstates 65 and 70.

1890. The Postal Telegraph Company was placing telegraph poles and wires connecting Indianapolis and Terre Haute. Looking at a map, even then, it is quickly noticed that fastest way between the two is the old National Road. Oh, but not so quick.

The National Road was built by the Federal Government in the early to mid 1800’s. The road was built on land that was already owned by the Federal Government. The path of the road had changed from what was planned, but it did connect the seats of government in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois at the time. In 1848, it was ceded to the states.

In Indiana, the road was sold to Curtis Gilbert and others in 1850. They sold the road to the Western Plank Road Company. By 1890, a Terre Haute attorney, Joseph H. Blake, owned the majority of the stock in the Western Plank Road Company. This would come into play when it came to the Postal Telegraph Company.

From Greencastle to the Vigo County line, farmers were having none of the telegraph installers. Some farmers were threatening telegraph company workers. Some were cutting down the poles as they were put up. One farmer filed a lawsuit against the telegraph company. The company counter sued.

This brings us back to Mr. Blake, owner of the Western Plank Road Company. As owner of the company, and the National Road, Blake claimed the right of the road for traffic, such as street car lines, telegraph lines, and the like. It all came down to Mr. Blake not allowing the telegraph company to install lines along the National Road without paying for the privilege.

The Postal Telegraph Company would detour their construction before getting to Greencastle, running southward to follow the Bloomington Road into Terre Haute. Such behavior would continue when it came to the right of way on roads until facilities like the National Road would be purchased back by the counties.

One of the major components of what would eventually become the Big Four Railway was the line that leaves Indianapolis to the northeast, and would be commonly called the “Bee” line. The nickname came not from the directness of the route, but by the name the company would have when it was finally built: the Indianapolis and Bellefontaine Railroad.

The railroad started life when the Indiana General Assembly, through special act, chartered the Pendleton & Indianapolis Railroad. This happened in January 1846. Railroad charters were flying out of Indianapolis at a break neck pace at this time. While the Madison & Indianapolis was still being constructed toward the state capital, other companies were jockeying for position to be able to ferry the M&I’s traffic to other far flung points.

Even before the first piece of track was put down, the company would change its name. The new company name would be the one that it would live with in nickname form for the rest of time: Indianapolis & Bellefontaine. Exactly when this happened is unclear. But it was sometime possibly in 1848.

The Indiana State Sentinel of 6 May 1848 reports on the Indianapolis & Bellefontaine, and the goals of the company. A Mr. Smith addressed the citizens of Indianapolis from the porch of Washington Hall. “He maintained that this road was of great importance to central Indiana; that it was but a line, of eighty miles in the great chain of rail-road communication from Boston, New York and Philadelphia to St. Louis, running through central Indiana. He showed by map, which he exhibited, that the rail-road lines from Boston and New York, running north-west to Sandusky, being completed.” On that same map “the route of the road from Bellefontaine to St. Louis was a direct and almost straight route on the line of this rail-road to St. Louis through Sydney, Winchester, Muncie, Anderson, Pendleton, Indianapolis, Terre Haute and Vandalia.”

By August 1850, the route had been completed from Indianapolis to Pendleton, a total of 26 miles. The article to the left appeared in the Indiana State Sentinel of 1 August 1850. It makes mention that once the line was completed to Bellefontaine, Indianapolis would have direct connection to New York City via the Lake Erie and the New York Railroads. At Bellefontaine, the railroad would connect to lines that ran from that town to Cleveland, Sandusky, Columbus, and Cincinnati, among other places. At Sandusky and Cleveland, it was possible to change trains over to what was quickly becoming the New York Central system of railroads, allowing access to New York via the Water Level Route. The Lake Erie road mentioned in the article is the Little Miami Railroad, originally called the Lake Erie and Mad River, connecting the Ohio River at Cincinnati to Lake Erie at Sandusky.

Sometime in 1854 or 1855, the railroad in Indiana would change its name again to the Indianapolis, Pittsburgh & Cleveland. At that point, from Bellefontaine, one could connect to both New York through the above mentioned routes, or to Pittsburgh, and thus Philadelphia, via Columbus, Ohio. But locally, it was still called the Bellfontaine.

As was typical of the time, there was another company, formed in Ohio on 25 February 1848, called the Bellefontaine & Indiana Railroad. It was the Ohio end of the same railroad that was built from Indianapolis towards Bellefontaine. Although both railroads were legally separate, they were treated as one entity as far as traffic was concerned. All the above mentioned connections were happening in Ohio, so this part of the company was the lions share of the traffic collection.

At the Indianapolis end, the Bee line was a critical part in creating what would become the first Union Station in the United States. Union Depot, built in swamp land at the south end of the original mile square, would replace stations that each railroad company had throughout the downtown area. I covered this in the article “Before Indianapolis Union Depot.” The Bellefontaine’s station was located just west of Plum Street, now College Avenue, between Arch and Vine (now Ninth) Streets. The railroads, both the Bellefontaine and the Indianapolis & Peru, ran closer to downtown than they do today. Both ran along what is now Fulton Street, with the I&P curving off to the northeast along what is now Davidson Street, but was known then as Peru Street.

Both the Indiana and Ohio portions of the road were consolidated into one company, the Bellefontaine Railway, with acts approved in both Indiana and Ohio in February 1864. Four years later, on 16 May 1868, the name Bellefontaine would officially disappear from railroad maps when the Bellefontaine would consolidate with the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati to form the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati & Indianapolis Railway. And although Indianapolis was an important central point on the CCC&I and the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis & Chicago Railway, when those two companies were merged, the name Indianapolis was removed from the corporate title. That consolidation, on 1 July 1889, became known as the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railway, or Big Four.

Today, the Bee Line still chugs along, with a fair amount of traffic, now owned by CSX. It had seen its share of owners over the years: Big Four, New York Central, Penn Central, Conrail, and finally CSX. The railroad created a community, that would later become a part of Indianapolis, called Brightwood. The line would also be instrumental in transportation to Fort Benjamin Harrison during both of the world wars. I also like to think that there was a bit of “Folsom Prison Blues” going on as the train wound and whistled its way past the Indiana State Prison at Pendleton. When Conrail was created after the complete failure of the Penn Central, it was decided that the Bee Line would be used instead of the old Pennsylvania Railroad lines through the Hoosier State. The old Bee Line’s connections made part of the decision easy. Also, the maintenance of the line before it became part of the Penn Central played a big role in the decision.

Today, I will occasionally ride up to Muncie, plop down a lawn chair, and watch the trains as they muscle their way back and forth along the Bellefontaine. Trains going off to who knows where. And trains that have been the same thing, past the same point, for 170 years.

14 February 1941. Announcement was made that the Hamilton County Road Superintendent was advised that the Indiana State Highway Commission was looking into some road work in the county. The plan was to widen the Range Line Highway (US 31), and to add two new state roads. All of the projects were to be considered part of the national defense program.

The project that the County Superintendent thought was most important was the widening of the Range Line Road from the Hamilton-Marion County line to the Hamilton-Tipton County Line. County Road Superintendent Carey said “his understanding is that it might be widened to a two lane highway or he had understanding there was a possibility that it might be converted into a four lane road.” (Source: Noblesville Ledger, 14 February 1941). Some property owners had been contacted about right of way acquisition at that time, as well.

“It is recalled that the last time the widening of this road attracted much attention was 2 or 3 years ago when the Commission sought to secure the right-of-way but the project was dropped when it was ascertained that 90 per cent of the abutting property owners were opposed to the change.”

Two state roads were proposed at the time. The first one would be across the south part of the county, starting southwest of Carmel on the Range Line Highway, traveling east across the Delaware and Fall Creek townships, connecting with State Road 67 a short distance south of Anderson. This project had been running around in the minds of the ISHC for years.

The second road proposal involved a road that started at Fort Benjamin Harrison, connecting to Hamilton County southeast of Fishers. “This road might be of an advantage for military purposes, the State Commission and Federal government officials think.” The proposed road would give the fort an outlet to the north, which it did not have (or really still doesn’t).

Both proposed roads would be new construction. There was no way of knowing, at the time, how far these projects would progress. But considering that the county was contacted at all lent credence to the proposals.